RUSSIA'S PRESENT RULER.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3039, 23 March 1881, Page 3

RUSSIA'S PRESENT RULER.

The following is from an issue of the London Daily Telegraph prior to the assassination of the late Emperor of .Russia : — " What may be in store for Turkey, Germany, or Austria —indeed, for Great Britain itself from the moment the helm of the Russian Stateship shall he confided to the vigorous grasp of Alexander Alexandrovich, Ho man can say. The Czarovieh is a Prince cast in a very different mould from that which shaped his weak, amiable, easily-in-fluenced sire. He is known to entertain fixed opinions, resolves, and projects, and to adhere to them with all the tenacity of a singularly-determined and self-relying nature Of his fervent faith in the Panslavistic dogmas no doubt has been entertained since he came to manhood by those who know him best 5 and his antipathy to all German men and things is no less notorious than his sympathy with the attractive qualities of the French nation. He is believed by his countrymen to be before all else a true and uncompromising Russian patriot; to hold in horror the system of peculation, bribery, and administrative fraud that has honeycombed the Empire during the last two reigns, and brought it to the brink of ruin ; to have set his face in particular against abuses of their high stations practised hitherto with impunity by certain of his own near relatives: and to have vowed himself to the mission, as far as the internal affairs of his native land are concerned, of exterpating, root and branch, the countless abominations tolerated by his father, with what result the Nihilistic movement has only too terribly demonstrated. The Ert9sian Crown Prince, under whatever title he may assume tho active government of his Imperial heritage, coregent, or other, is generally expected to oome forward as a radical reformer at home, and as a vigorous promoter of the Panslavistio programme abroad. Should he realise the anticipations at present entertained on his account, it is more than probable that Russia's neighbors in Europe and Asia will, in the course of a few years to come, find ample reason to regret the romantic union that is about to lead to Alexander Nicolaievich's renunciation of Imperial Bwayin favor of Alexander Alexandrovich."